Game industry business news

Nintendo’s WiiWare service has made its European debut – and, as promised, there are six downloadable titles available to consumers to choose from on launch day. The service launched in Japan in March and in the US last week. Key games available from today include Lost Winds from UK developer …

Sales from China’s online games market reached 10.57 billion Chinese Yen [CNY] ($1.5bn) in FY 2007-2008, up 61.5 per cent year on year. According to a new Research and Markets report, 6.88 billion CNY ($986.6m) came from sales revenue from online games developed independently by Chinese companies, amounting to 65 …

The Entertainment Software Association paid over $5 million last year to move its annual expo from Los Angeles to Santa Monica – only to bring the show back to the city’s Convention Center for this year. That’s according to IRS documents obtained by games news blog Kotaku, which show that …

President Yoichi Wada reiterates long-running expansion plans and bid to grow international empire

New worldwide research has revealed that the brand power of PlayStation is as strong as ever, as it remains the aspirational console of choice for teens. Nearly 60,000 teenagers between the ages of 11 and 18 across 31 markets took part in a survey conducted by youth-oriented virtual world Habbo, …

The advent of the next generation has meant our world of pre-rendered CG and the world of the real-time video games have been pushed so much closer together. The PS3 is capable of such amazing graphic quality that throughout the whole games industry the bar on production values has been …

Activision and Vivendi might have dropped out , but it looks like every other heavyweight in the publishing world will still be involved in this year’s E3. Organisers the Entertainment Software Association has released the full list of exhibitors, and all the big hitters are on there – including LucasArts, …

Some good news for Disney has come out of this week’s Box Office in the US – as Chronicles Of Narnia: Prince Caspian knocks off Iron Man from the top of the charts. Iron Man has been brought to console with some success by Sega, and has steadily moved up …

Take Two’s Board has once again taken the opportunity to tell the world that EA’s $25.74-per-share tender offer ‘undervalues’ the company – and revealed that it is already talking to other interested parties. EA announced this afternoon that it had extended the deadline for acceptance of its bid until Monday, …

After announcing that it is set to bring US and electronics retail behemoth Best Buy to the UK , The Carphone Warehouse has told MCV that existing European retail outlets are failing their customers. Earlier this month, the firm announced that it had invested 1.1 billion in Best Buy – …